Shadow Training Chamber
Castle Draco has many facilities for those in the arcane and esoteric arts. Since the Countess has a semi-permanent guest who also happens to fall under the classifications of consort and monster one of the infrequently used ritual chambers in the lower level has been set aside for him. Officially, it is for when he wishes to indulge in his more monstrous abilities. The real reason was it was mainly set aside to keep him from making a mess in his suite while learning various forms of control. But saying its for monstrous activities keeps out the nosy eyes of the younger castle servants. There's little to damage or break in this room and the walls are thick and soundproof so any accidents that happen to be painful don't disturb the other guests.

After finally escaping Mave's lair (thanks to a much needed nap and the absence of the Yodhinala when he awoke), Alptraum was able to get another hog to refresh the magical battery in his right hand. It had apparently run down while he was asleep, since the orb was dark and Kaira was not around.

Alptraum enters the vacated ritual chamber, shaking his hand. "It really feels gross with that pumping and sucking thing you do when I grab something," the Eeee complains at his right hand. Still, it looks better than it did an hour ago, when the orb had gone dark and the flesh began to slowly contract in from the lack of energy. He then rolls hand holds his hand put, peering at it. "Maybe I can make you look a bit better for my dinner with the Countess," he comments, "I have some time before Barnabas will be free enough to help me plan a surprise, so … " The Eeee reaches down to his waist and draws out his dagger, then slowly slides it into his arm. "Let's see if Kaira is mad at me or not and if she feels up to giving me some pointers… " he mutters.

The orb glows, and the dragon's head appears floating over it. "Oh, hello there, Alptraum," she says, as if she wasn't expecting it to be him for some reason.

"Expecting another visitor?" Alptraum asks the floating head.

"Of course not," the dragon says. "I was just trying to maintain an air of casualness… casualty?… no, casualness. I've heard that it's important to maintain such with workplace romances."

Alptraum's brow goes up at that. "My, my, that sounds like you actually enjoyed what happened when we were helping Mave," the Eeee comments as he tries really hard to keep from grinning. "I have to admit I'm starting to feel like a dragon's play toy."

"What, only recently?" Kaira asks, her ears rising up.

"Well, you're more of a dragon in appearance than Melusine is," Alptraum notes, "And certainly far more appreciative than she is. So … with all we've been through, I can't help but feel a bit like a dragon's play thing. Not that I mind! I've rather enjoyed it. Well, anyway, would you like to be solid for a while? I have a fairly good charge and could maintain you for a bit. I was wondering if you could help advise me on a few things. If you're busy, I understand," Alptraum comments and leans lightly against a nearby wall.

Once again, Kaira does that odd 'pulling herself out of the orb' thing where she becomes more solid as more of her appears. To conserve energy she's still in her smaller shoulder-dragon form though. After crawling up Alptraum's arm and perching on his shoulder, she asks, "So, advice, eh? I didn't think there was anything wrong with your technique last night to be honest. It's not like I have a lot of outside experience to compare too… "

The Eeee laughs and shakes his head. He rubs over his eyes briefly, teasing, "Well, there was something wrong with last night; I wasn't properly scaly to match you. Don't think I don't know that you like the black dragon form I worked up." As he reaches back to pat the small dragon, he adds, "But I didn't invite you here to talk about that. What I was hoping was you could advise me on how to alter the chitin on my right hand to make it less … well … nasty looking. I intend to sweep the Countess off her feet and while she probably doesn't mind a monster most times … I'd like my right hand to look relatively normal for a few hours. I figured you had the best experience with what this stuff is … but if you don't I can always go arrange a deal with Melusine for some education. I don't think she would scar me too much… "

"Ah!" Kaira says, and slides back down the arm to 'sit' on the back of the gauntlet. "Well, do you remember how the dagger blade reacted when it was exposed to the Light of Nala or had a lot of Life-force magic channeled through it?"

"It became gooey," Alptraum says with a small grimace. He remembers the look and feel all too well.

"More than that, it became… alive," Kaira notes. "When you channeled Smashengrab's life-force into Hekat, Vorgulremik's draconic aura came forth. And when facing the sorcerer Dack it grew to the length of a sword. When Life magic is channeled directly into the material of the blade, it becomes more active and malleable."

Tapping a tiny claw on the chitin, Kaira notes, "This is the same material."

"So, then, effectively, I'm growing dragon flesh from my forearm when I do that," Alptraum says as he holds his right arm out and looks at it. "How dangerous is it to do? If this is part of Vorgulremik, does it offer risk of him breaking free?"

"No, because he's in the dagger, not in your arm," Kaira points out. "Although you probably won't want to make any change while the dagger is inserted, at first. I can make changes, but that won't really help you learn to do it yourself. But the first step is channeling the stored life magic from the orb into the chitin itself."

"And then it could be shaped into anything within reason?" Alptraum asks, "Could I even push it aside and see the state of my arm underneath in spots? I know I can't undo it, but could I peek?" Wigging his fingers, he adds, "So, how do I channel into it?"

"Hmmmm," Kaira goes, looking thoughtful. "Well, you usually apply your magic by extending your shadow shroud over something. So, I would think shrouding your hand would have the same effect. If you want to try that, I can make sure there isn't any bleed-over to the dagger."

"That sounds safer. I can also use the shadow as containment," Alptraum agrees, "So … up on my shoulder or I'll give you the Melusine Experience." He grins and waggles his brow, too.

The mini-dragon retreats to Alptraum's shoulder and watches closely.

Alptraum holds his hand out, fingers spread and steady. As his brow furrows, he nudges the murky 'liquid' that flows just beneath the surface of his skin outward. In this case, it's focused on his hand only. Since the chitin isn't permeable, the inky black goo oozes out between the plate joints. The site is something only a Yodhgorphat could love; it looks like he's infected with some sort of horrid oozing disease. After several minutes, the shiny black of the chitin is replaced by a rolling and squirmy black mass. "That looks really nasty," he admits. "The things I do to myself for love."

"Okay, see if you can reshape it now," Kaira says. "Hold it in the shadow, isolate from your real skin and… smoosh it around or something. Maybe if you make it denser, you can lessen the area it covers."

Alptraum focuses on the chitin plating. He pushes a slow trickle of energy into the shadow and starts pushing on it. The first thing he thinks of trying is to actually fuse the plating on the backs of his fingers, making it appear he has a two finger armored gauntlet instead of five-finger hand, and thickening the plating. He does this out of the memory he had of the strange bug-like Eeee he met long ago and the vivid memory of how its body looked; a good a template as any. He also tries to nudge the chitin forward a bit on his arm, trying to thicken the plates with the excess and expose some of the skin on the back of his forearm. He doesn't ever force it; he tries to just move it gently, a constant and easy pressure.

The shadow-skin humps up, flows and stretches. Some of Alptraum's fingers appear as it pulls back from them, taking the chitin with it. As the forearm covering retracts, Kaira notes, "Be careful not to cover over the dagger."

Alptraum nods slowly as he pays attention to where the dagger is and never pushes against that particular spot. He holds the chitin still for a moment and tries to get a look at the condition of the skin that is normally chitin bound.

The skin looks a bit… furless and old… at the moment. But perhaps that can be dealt with later.

"Well, I look mostly okay under it. And I imagine that nothing I could do to it would be a permanent change, correct. The chitin will flow back to as it was before, correct?" Alptraum asks. "I'm thinking the best thing to try for with the Countess would be to just allow it to be on my hand and forearm … but smooth out the veins and ridges just so it looks smoother and less … monstrous."

"Well, the gauntlet is the default state, yes," Kaira points out. "You'd need to apply magic to maintain any other shape for long. But you might be able to expose more of your skin."

"The orb cannot be moved, can it?" Alptraum asks, "If not, I could expose my fingers and more of my forearm, maybe. That would just leave he back of my hand and down the center where the slot is still chitinous."

The little dragon bobs her head from side to side, rocking her whole torso. "MMmmmmmaybe!" she comments. "I might be able to help you stash some of the excess out of the way."

"How can the excess be stashed?" Alptraum asks, "Where would it go?"

"Into the dagger, but then you'd have to leave it plugged in," Kaira notes.

"How long will it retain a shape before it reverts?" Alptraum asks next. He continues nudging on the chitin on the back of his fingers and hand, seeing how far he can push it away from his skin.

"Well, the usual one or two days I think," Kaira says. "Unless you use the dagger, in which case there'd be a constant drain on your power reserve."

It isn't long before all of Alptraum's fingers are exposed, with the shadow bulging up around the orb.

Alptraum actually smiles. "I'm happy with just a night," the Eeee admits. "I don't mind what happened to my hand, Kaira. It was a price worth paying for her. But … well, the date I want to be with just Rose and Alptraum. No shadow dragon reminders, no ruling concerns, no powers. Just two normal people for a night. I want to give her a night of just being a normal woman." Carefully, he nudges the orb, just to see if it will move … or if its roots flow deep into his hand.

The orb doesn't want to budge at first, but eventually shifts around from the prodding.

"Well, does that mean you want me to try holding some in the dagger?" Kaira asks.

Alptraum tries to push it back slowly and look at the back of his hand. "See if you can safely," he suggests.

"Okay, pull back your shadow then," the shoulder-dragon advises. "I'll need to take full control for this."

Alptraum retracts the shadow slowly. It seems to absorb back into his skin.

The chitin looks… well, doughy. It's bunched up over the back of the hand and thicker looking along the forward part of the forearm as well. When Kaira takes control, the whole mass seems to tingle, and the orb in particular itches.

"Is it supposed to itch?" Alptraum asks as he resists scratching.

"Alright, I'm going to try moving it further back along your arm now," Kaira notes. "The itching… well, it'll probably get worse."

"Why is it itching?" Alptraum asks, "And it'll stop, right?"

"Oh, it'll stop… when the orb is done moving," the dragoness promises. The itching feeling changes a bit: now it's like hairs being plucked out, and pins being inserted – or more disturbingly like thousands of little spiny feet hooking into the skin underneath the orb as it crawls towards Alptraum's wrist.

"Gah, what the heck is it doing? It feels like it's crawling on my arm!" Alptraum complains. His toe claws tap repeatedly on the floor out of frustration on resisting the urge to scratching them.

"Yeah, it's crawling," Kaira says, bobbing her head. "It has to maintain full contact with your flesh, so I have to make new connections as it goes before retracting the old ones. I'm sure it won't be as bad when it reverts, since… since it will just be slower then."

"So, it is embedded into my hand, then, a complete part of me," Alptraum mutters. At the comment of slower, the Eeee winces. Nothing like a day long itch to drive you insane.

As the orb moves, it leaves behind black skin that shows some signs of irritation, like hundreds of oozing little holes. "You can probably use the shadow on the skin to ease it," Kaira suggests. "Just don't try to cover the chitin." If it can even be called chitin now, as the gooey mass squirms its way towards Alptraum's elbow like some giant, flat slug.

"Where are you moving it to?" Alptraum inquires as he pushes the shadow back out to ease the skin (as well as try to encourage the fur to regrow."

"Well, I'm trying to make it resemble a leather bracer," Kaira explains. The edges of the goo are forming the 'lips' of the proper shape now, curling around the arm but not quite touching on the underside. And as it thins, it's clear that some of the mass has gone away. The surface becomes more leathery, and reliefs of stylized dragon forms rise up and change from black to gold. The orb settles down a few inches back from the wrist, just at the point of the dagger sheath. As an added touch, the symbol of the Grave appears embossed in gold on the sheath as well.

"Ah, okay, right. That's a great idea. Thank you, Kaira. I owe you once again," Alptraum comments. He reaches over and taps the 'bracer' lightly, testing if it's pliable or still hard and just looks leathery.

It actually feels like hardened leather instead of chitin now. "Oh, if for some reason you have to draw out the dagger, don't do it where anyone can see," Kaira warns. "It'll look weird." Under the shadow, the irritated skin is calming down, and the regrowing fur causes a crawling sensation.

"How weird?" Alptraum has to ask. His fingers wiggle for a bit. "Ah well, for for a day or so before the chitin eats it again," he laments.

"Ever seen a magician do that trick where he pulls a long rope of scarves out of his sleeve?" Kaira asks.

"Ah, heh, I get your point. Hexen used to do that trick," Alptraum says. "So … are you mad at me? Over the whole Mave servitude, that is?"

"It wasn't as bad I as expected it to be," Kaira says, although her voice is lowered. "I think I can… work… with Mave."

"Oh? Work with her how? Don't tell me you found her … attractive," Alptraum teases.

"Work with her," Kaira notes. "Strive for mutual goals, that sort of thing," she explains. Then she crawls down to hang on the bracer. "Hmmm… "

"Hmm? Problem?" Alptraum inquires. "As for mutual goals, that would be great. Well, providing they are't 'How can I best use Alptraum'… "

Kaira doesn't comment on the latter observation, but says, "The easiest shapes you'll be able to make the gauntlet conform to will be based on Vorgulremik's own anatomy. Maybe a shield made from a wing, or a whip based on his tail. Not sure about a little dragon head that breathes fire though… "

"A fire-breathing arm is probably not safe anyway. But a shield or whip is useful. His talons would be too," Alptraum admits. "So, while I was asleep you and Mave didn't … do things, did you?"

"We talked a little, before I ran out of power," Kaira admits.

"About?" Alptraum inquires as he feels over his temporarily free hand.

Everything he remembers about his hand seems to be there, including the sense of touch. "Just… stuff," the little dragon says, now dangling from Alptraum's arm. "Getting to understand one another."

"That worries me a little," Alptraum admits. "I always feel like she has some great evil plan in mind."

"Why evil?" Kaira asks, looking up at Alptraum and swinging back and forth now.

"Because she is out for herself, no matter what may get in her way?" Alptraum comments, "And she sees me as a potential sire to a new line, I think."

"Hmm, well, that is the goal with the Countess, isn't it?" the dragon points out. Then she says, "Pick me up and pet me!"

Alptraum gives Kaira an odd look, then lifts her up and actually does pet her. "With the Countess, well, I was hoping to raise children with her. An actual family. With Mave it would be … different," he notes.

Kaira purrs like a scaly cat, and notes, "Different? I'm sure the mechanics are the same. They're both Eeees after all."

"It would not be a nurturing environment. Mave wants pleasure servants to start a new temple," Alptraum points out. "Not a family. She also wants me to ask Melusine to make me look like … her for a day. That's disturbing."

"If you thought it was disturbing, then why did you mention the possibility to her?" Kaira asks, swishing her tail. "It isn't like you have an obligation to make her or Melusine happy."

"Because I spoke before I thought," Alptraum admits, "And I know I don't. But I try anyway. I guess I always have hope they're not as bad as they sometimes seem."

"Has Mave done anything bad?" Kaira asks. "I haven't, have I?"

"Mave tried to kill me and the others," Alptraum notes, "In the Well of Souls. You haven't."

"Hmm, I remember her grabbing the Light, but not trying to kill you," Kaira notes, still purring. "Is the petting helping you relax? Petting your pet is supposed to be relaxing."

"I was already relaxed," Alptraum notes but keeps petting, "But I suppose I will have to ask Melusine about Mave's request eventually. That'll be an odd conversation. I also still have to figure out hot to remain on her good side if I intend to stay with the Countess."

"As I've heard, the idea is to get the Countess away from Melusine to see if she can get pregnant," the dragon notes. "You probably shouldn't mention that to Melusine though."

"Well, yes. But I mean in general. The Countess on average has to be here. And if I'm around her, I want to be sure I don't have a blob plotting my death," Alptraum points out. "I'm going to talk to the Rose about going to the marriage ceremony with me. That is at least a fair distance. Not sure I could get her to go much further."

"She's left Sylvania before," Kaira notes. "And Melusine is almost certainly plotting your demise for when she has no further use for you. But that's not to say she'd carry it out. It's just part of her nature."

"Well, I suppose that's fair, considering I've debated ways to kill her if I had to," Alptraum admits. "But for now I'd prefer us to try and get along, if not have an odd sort of friendship. It just makes this easier. Plus, I still have to decide what to do with you."

"I'm your pet dragon – your favorite dragon!" Kaira notes, holding her chin up. "You have to keep me warm and fed and happy, right? Or else use me to hunt foxes. One of those."

"You are my favorite dragon, yes. Not so sure about the pet part," Alptraum notes, "What I mean is, I fully intend to finish the work you need me to do. And I also fully intend to try and find a way for you to have a real life after it's over. There has to be a way to get you a real body."

Alptraum peers at Kaira for a moment. "Hmmm," he muses, lips pulling back into an plotting smile.

"Help one person at a time," Kaira advises. "The Countess first."

"Well, yes. You're a very long term project," Alptraum points out. "I just have to win Rose's heart and defeat the walls she has up. And I can. It's all about making her feel wanted. Not for her position or powers … just for her."

"Ahhhh," Kaira says, and winks. "Romance! Like in those books with the suggestive covers?"

"Not as silly as those covers make it out. In those stories, nothing embarrassing ever happens, like slipping in a snog and licking the person's nose," Alptraum explains, "But something real. Where things aren't perfect, but you can laugh about it. Fallibility, fun, and genuine caring. It's not about being just physically intimate; that should just be a reflection on caring for the person, not their image."

"So if I looked like Vorgy, you'd still care about me all the same?" Kaira asks.

"Yes, because it's your personality that matters more to me than what you look like," Alptraum says. "Look at the women who are my friends, Kaira. Phlagaea the Yodhgorphat. Doctor Floribunda Pike, the bookworm. I still care about them, even if they aren't what is considered the 'beauty standard'."

"Oh," Kaira notes. "Well, lucky for you I'm the most beautiful dragon you'll ever meet then – but don't tell Tulani I said that."

"What do female steel dragons look like, anyway? The males are terrifying … and so is their, ah, equipment. I remember the one taunting Tulani," Alptraum says, shuddering.

"They're bigger and spikier and have longer teeth," Kaira comments. "They tend to eat their children too, if they happen to be hungry. Frankly, we'd never have wiped them all out if not for that trait."

"So, not a species I should go meet?" Alptraum asks.

"And, let me make a guess here … Vorgulremik ate his own mother?" Alptraum asks.

"Ummm, not sure about his family," Kaira admits. "You'd have to ask him. I never got on that well with my mother though."

"If she's as stubborn as you are, that's not entirely surprising. I actually got along great with mine," Alptraum comments, "And maybe I will ask him about his family sometime. Or, hmmm, I could go looking for them in their world. They can't exactly harm me there, right?"

"They'd only be there if he took their souls," Kaira points out. "But you're welcome to poke around. And yes, they can hurt you, just not kill you. You got hurt during Tulani's first dragon-training mission in there."

"Well, kill's the primary concern," Alptraum admits. "Do you think it would be educational for me to explore their world a bit … or just flat stupid?"

"That is a tough question," Kaira admits. "I'd rather not think about it right now. You've got other things to deal with first anyway; like romancing the Countess."

"Well, yes. That's just idle curiosity. And speaking of the Countess, I need to meet with her butler now to finalize the dinner arrangement. You're welcome to tag along for a bit if you wish, or not. It's going to be dull for a while, though. Setting up all the candles is going to take hours," Alptraum grumbles.

"Okay, but I'll stay a bit transparent," Kaira notes. "No sense putting extra strain on the battery. And if you go to Arkold's wedding, won't you be the Best Man, too?"

"Probably, why?" Alptraum asks.

The little dragon grins, then fades out a bit so that only the smile is solid. "Well, it'll be your duty to arrange for the bachelor party then. Good luck with that!"

"Depends on how nice Arkold is to me. I might just set him up with half a dozen drunken Yodhblakats trying to strip," Alptraum threatens with a huge grin. "Now … that would be a party to remember. I imagine the screaming could be heard for miles… "